Today's Headlines and Commentary

North Korea’s foreign minister said that the U.S. had declared war after U.S. warplanes flew along the east coast of North Korea on Saturday in a show of force, the Wall Street Journal reported. Eight U.S. aircraft remained in international airspace as they flew north of the demilitarized zone close to the North Korean shoreline. Speaking at the U.N., Foreign minister Ri Yong Ho said Pyongyang has the right to take countermeasures, “including the right to shoot down U.S. strategic bombers, even if they are not yet inside the air-space border of our country.” President Trump said on Saturday that North Korea’s leaders “would not be around much longer” if they took any action against U.S. forces.

The Trump administration issued new travel restrictions that indefinitely ban most citizens of seven countries from visiting the United States, the Washington Post reported. The order includes nearly all the countries covered by the original travel ban and adds North Korea, Chad, and Venezuela to the list of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia. Sudan, which was among the countries affected by Executive Order 13780, was not included in the proclamation. The new order restricts travel by country, based on compliance with Department of Homeland Security standards. Its travel sanctions range widely: The order only imposes narrow restrictions on government officials in Venezuela, while banning nearly all travel from Syria and North Korea, according to the New York Times. While the original travel ban, which was a temporary measure, expired on Sunday, the new measure has no end date. It will take effect on October 18.

President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner used a private email account for White House business on numerous occasions, Politico reported. Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump set up a private email server before starting work at the White House in January. He used the account for convenience — often while traveling. Kushner’s lawyer acknowledged the emails in a statement on Sunday, saying Kushner had sent or received fewer than 100 work-related emails using the account.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term in parliamentary elections on Sunday, the Times reported. Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats took a plurality of votes as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party came in third place. AfD nearly tripled its vote total from the previous election and will be the first far-right party to enter the Bundestag since 1961. Merkel will have to form a new coalition with smaller parties because her previous coalition partner, the Social Democrats, announced they would join the opposition.

Iraqi Kurdistan votes today in an independence referendum that regional powers strongly oppose, the BBC reported. Voters are expected to choose independence, despite declarations from Iraq’s government that the referendum is unconstitutional and illegitimate. While the plebiscite is non-binding, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which administers the semi-autonomous region, intends to use it as leverage in negotiations with Baghdad. On Saturday, Iran blocked flights to Iraqi Kurdistan as it conducted military exercises on the border, the Post reported. On Sunday, Iraq’s prime minister issued an order in advance of the vote saying that the KRG should transfer control of all airports and border crossings to Baghdad and transfer responsibility for all financial transactions, including oil sales, to the central government. The KRG did not respond to the order.

U.S.-backed forces in eastern Syria captured a strategically-located gas plant from the Islamic State, the Journal reported. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) seized the Conoco gas plant, which was a major source of revenue for the Islamic State and is now a source of funding for the various rebel groups and militias fighting in Deir al-Zour province. The SDF said that Russian warplanes struck their positions near the gas plant last week, days after a Russian strike hit SDF lines near the city of Deir al-Zour, according to Reuters. In northwestern Syria, Russia and the Syrian regime escalated their strikes on rebel positions in Idlib and Hama provinces in response to a jihadist offensive, Reuters also reported. The bombing campaigns disrupted the tentative ceasefire that had brought a measure of peace to heavily-populated civilian areas in the area.

The U.S. military said it carried out airstrikes against an Islamic State training camp in Libya that killed 17 fighters, the Times reported. The six strikes against a training camp south of the city of Sirte were the first American bombings in Libya since January. Last year, an extensive U.S. air campaign helped drive the Islamic State out of Sirte. Currently, the Pentagon estimates that a few hundred fighters remain in Libya’s deserts, where they take advantage of the political chaos in Tripoli to smuggle weapons and personnel in and out of the country. On Wednesday, the U.N. envoy to Libya said he would attempt to renegotiate a power sharing accord between the government and the armed factions that control large swaths of the country.

A roadside bomb killed three U.N. peacekeepers in northern Mali, the Times reported. The peacekeeping mission has suffered high casualties since its establishment in 2013. It is tasked with securing northern Mali after an armed rebellion by local ethnic Tuareg militias and Islamist groups took control of that region in 2012. The U.N. has 12,000 uniformed personnel in Mali and has suffered 133 casualties since 2013. At the U.N., Mali’s president highlighted a new counterterrorism force for region; it will be composed of troops from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali Mauritania, and Niger.

Iran tested an intermediate range ballistic missile on Saturday after unveiling it in defiance of U.S. condemnation, the Journal reported. Iranian media said the Khoramshahr missile is capable of traveling more than 2,000 kilometers. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Friday that he would not “ask anybody’s permission” to defend his country after President Trump criticized Iran’s missile program and the Iran nuclear deal.

ICYMI: This weekend, on Lawfare

Vanessa Sauter posted the Lawfare Podcast, featuring audio from a lecture by Stephan Haggard on the North Korean nuclear and missile programs.

Shannon Togawa Mercer previewed the result of the German election and its implications for transatlantic relations.

Colin Clarke argued that one of the best ways to identify and disrupt returning foreign fighters from the Islamic State is focusing on their criminal activities and networks.

Matthew Kahn posted the White House’s new immigration proclamation and associated documents.

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